Prolific

Prolific: Fertile, producing offspring or fruit in great abundance—applied to plants producing fruit, animals producing young, etc

A perfect definition to describe what's been going on in our yard. Scott's words to the young men summed it up (the Bishop related this to me).

"Kitten's were born under my air-conditioning unit. Bunnies were born under my lettuce plants. Pigeons are nesting on my roof, and Sarah is pregnant."

It has been an exciting couple of weeks with all the wild-life producing around us. The kids love every minute of a new discovery, and it makes me laugh that our tiny backyard has been the choice spot for so many mothers.

It has also been a bit disconcerting. I have no compassion for the pigeons who leave droppings all over our house and barrage our roof with their garbage. The kittens were so cute, but their home was the spot where the air-conditioning unit connected to the house. I could hear noises in the walls when they were about. It couldn't be good. I was also afraid the mom would lash out at our kids if they tried to pick up a baby, which I knew they would if there was any possible way. Scott got fed-up with the extra offspring around here and sprayed vinegar all around where the cats had made their home. We haven't seen that little family since.

We're still fighting the pigeons. That one is never-ending.

The bunnies are a story all their own. More to come on that.

Wall Walking

One of our greatest summer joys is walking along the garden wall. The kids often retreat to the backyard to walk along the edge of the garden as they look for bugs, (sometimes bunnies!), and to take a pick of the spinach or onion chives to munch on. Ellie especially loves reaching down to take a bite of a spinach leaf. The only problem is she doesn't decipher well on her own which one is the spinach leaf. We've found her several times spitting out the leaves of a tomato or cucumber plant!

I am so grateful for Scott who loves to garden and has brought some greenery to our backyard. The other morning Jared looked out the window at the garden and said, "Yep, our garden is looking pretty good." The kids all take pride in the garden and are always anxious to find a new bloom. Hopefully this year's garden will meet their expectations!

Great Grandma and Grandpa

I'm behind in my blogging so will try to catch up on some of the things that have been going on while I've been moping around the house praying to feel better.

My grandpa's brother, Lyle has lived here in Albuquerque for the last 50 years or so. His wife passed away a couple of weeks ago so grandma and grandpa Porter drove down from Utah to attend the funeral and support Lyle. We were so excited it meant they got to see us too. My kids were thrilled and couldn't wait for them to get here.

Grandpa and Grandma took the kids to the vending machine at their motel and bought everyone something of their choosing. It was like a dream come true for my kids. Their mom is way too stingy to buy something out of a vending machine so it was an exciting novelty for the kids.

We went swimming at the pool at their motel and discovered that Ellie has absolutely no fear of the water. She loved every minute of it, and I know I'm going to have to watch her closely. She wanted to jump in the water by herself with no one catching her!

Grandpa also tuned our piano. Thank you Grandpa! It was nice to have them hang around with us for a few hours. I think one of my most favorite memories was watching Jared sit quietly on Grandpa's lap during Sacrament Meeting. I could tell Jared just loved it, and it made me smile. We wish we lived closer and could see them more often!

Routines

This is Ellie's nighttime ritual. EVERY night after I tuck her in her bed she quietly creeps out of bed to arrange her own sleeping set-up. She is so quiet you don't even know she's awake. It must be more comfortable to sleep on piles of clothes she has emptied from every dresser drawer in her room than it is to sleep in her nice bed because she does this time and time again. You might feel frustrated if you are ever looking for clothes for Ellie and Jared in their dresser. I've gotten so tired of putting the clothes back in proper order just for them to be pulled out again that I've started just throwing them back anyway they go.

Many two year olds are still sleeping in their cribs. This is one of the nightmares of having a child with the "climb out of crib at early age" gene. Locked in a crib you can't get into so much trouble. Somehow every one of my kids have inherited this gene (probably from their troublemaker dad) because they have all started climbing out of their cribs by 18 months!

These were a few pictures from Ellie's Eucerin encounter. While we thought she was napping, she was painting the walls, carpets, beds and curtains with thick greasy Eucerin creme. My pictures don't do the mess I found justice. The carpet mess shown was just a small portion of the actual mess. It took me over an hour to clean this nightmare up, and I sometimes still find a spot of lotion on something that I missed!

I am a Mother

Almost eight years ago I became a mother. This is what we emailed to our family to announce my first pregnancy with Kaitlyn.


To announce Brynn's arrival I put together a small photo album of pictures of Kaitlyn and stuck a picture of my ultrasound of Brynn in the pages with the due date written on it.

Sorry Jared and Ellie. I must have just called on the phone to tell everyone. I can't remember doing anything creative.

Since the advent of the blog I know more about my brother's and sister's lives than I ever have, but hardly ever talk to them. I know within a day every one of my siblings will have checked my new post. So for baby #5 I'll announce it on my blog with this:
Twelve weeks along. Due at Thanksgiving. Praying fervently that morning sickness will end soon.

Happy Mother's Day!